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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Beatmakers Session & Beixingqiao Hutongs

Before joining the guys for the Beatmakers session, we took a quick detour to fetch coffee from 芳野 Cafe. I'm usually cautious about small coffee shops, 'cause the quality of a regular cup of coffee varies a lot in China. But then again, I was traumatised back in Shanghai and that was like ... 2013/14. Things have been getting better around here (or the Beijing scene is more developed), so I can confirm that these guys make a damn fine cup of Americano. No soy milk, but this cup of joe was enjoyable without anything. Cute interior and very welcoming owner as well!

At the Echo Inc records store - Mike Gao being filmed for a documentary by Vice China. He was introducing a music app (Polyplaygruond) he created. Generally a really chill dude, who has a PhD in music technology - smart people are cool.

Echo Inc record store's exterior - it's like you have these dirty-dusty hutongs and suddenly, this black shiny box with sliding doors appears and you're taken into a world of vintage vinyls from Guangzhou, some awesome new releases, photography books, limited release mangas and designer pieces by Yohji Yamamoto and Commes de Garçons.

We then headed to some random muslim restaurant in the area. Turns out, it was a good one! Anna-Lisa agreed on ordering just veggie foods, so we ended up with these crazy mushroom dishes, kelp seaweed, roasted peanut & spinach mix, bok choy and corn cones. These mushrooms were perfection!